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Compost-Fueled Cars: Wouldn't That Be Great? - Onion Talks - Ep. 1

The Onion · comedy · Watch on YouTube

Satire & parody

What it is

An Onion Talks satire in which a young media professional pitches compost-powered cars, offering the idea itself and leaving all implementation to others.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN uses it as shorthand for vague, detail-free visionary pitches and as a satirical jab at TED-style techno-utopian talks.

  • 4 people recommended it
  • 4 different months
  • 3 strong recommendations
  • first 2013, last 2026

What HN commenters said

  1. “They may be the funniest thing The Onion has ever done.”

    Satirical takedown of the startup idea guy.

    rpm4321, 2013-03 · Strong recommendation · in “TEDx talks discredited: Sheldrake speaks, argues that speed of light is dropping”

  2. “want a good satirical criticism of TED, I highly recommend them”

    Satirical criticism of TED talks.

    simonsarris, 2013-12 · Strong recommendation · in “We Need to Talk About TED”

  3. “neatly summarizes so much of the breathless excitement of vague, detail-free scientific and entrepreneurial claims”

    Summarizes breathless, detail-free scientific and entrepreneurial claims.

    karaterobot, 2022-03 · Strong recommendation · in “Lasers could cut lifespan of nuclear waste from a million years to 30 minutes”

  4. “the Onion did a great send up of techno-utopian TED talks here”

    Satire of techno-utopian TED talks.

    fullshark, 2019-07 · Recommendation · in “Microsoft is investing $1B in OpenAI”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: the onion, satire, ideas guy, ted talks, startup culture

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